Teaching Resource

The nineteenth century was marked by a period of innovation, invention, and a huge spurt of growth known as the industrial revolution. Many inventions from the nineteenth century never caught on or have become obsolete, while many others, with some modifications or improvements, continue to have an effect on our everyday lives.

Essential Question

How did change brought about by the technological advances of the 19th Century resemble the rapid pace of change today?

Materials...

Teaching Resource

Ask anyone what the greatest disaster in Chicago was and probably no one will say, “The Great Iroquois Theatre Fire of December 30, 1903.” Six hundred three souls perished in that fire. They probably won’t say, “The sinking of the Eastland excursion boat in the Chicago river in 1915.” Eight hundred thirty-five died in that tragedy. The answer will most likely be, “The Great Chicago Fire.” The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 left approximately three and one-third square miles of the city in ruins, created $192,000,000 in...

Teaching Resource

This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Through a step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary or secondary source material.

Overview

Students will understand the history and significance of several of America’s most iconic songs: “The Star-...

Teaching Resource

Approximately 200,000 African American men served as soldiers during the Civil War. This lesson seeks to teach fifth grade students not only the skill of analyzing a primary source but also the methods that were utilized to entice free blacks to serve in the Union Army during the war. Students will read and then rewrite a recruitment broadside and then will create a visual that contains four reasons why African Americans should fight in the Civil War.

Introduction

On March 21, 1863, Frederick Douglass...

Teaching Resource

Today’s students have an acute sense of fairness, and they dislike inequality in their lives. As they learn about our country’s history, they want to know why people have been treated unfairly. Why was slavery allowed? Why were Native Americans forced off their land? Why couldn’t women vote? The answers to the first two questions are rooted in economic and political forces of institutionalized racism and greed. This lesson focuses on answering the third question and addressing institutionalized gender discrimination....

Teaching Resource

Teaching Resource

Primary and secondary sources can provide different kinds of information about the past. In the context of slavery, Phillis Wheatley is considered the most important figure of the eighteenth century. Two accounts of her experience having been carried to America and then enslaved appear below. Read each account, and then answer the questions that follow.

Teaching Resource

The conquest of Tenochtitlan by Hernán Cortez in 1519 is one of the most well-known examples of encounters between Europeans and Americans prior to 1600. Some primary sources that document the event still exist, though many are quite difficult for elementary-age students to read and comprehend. This lesson will draw from sources that can be understood by children and will provide basic content knowledge of the event. Students will also be exposed to varying views on the conquest that are both contemporary to the...

Teaching Resource

The c onclusion that encounters between European settlers and Native Americans changed the lives of both groups has been central to many historical accounts of colonial history. While the arguments made are convincing, the discussions do not directly address the lives of women. It is possible that this omission is a result of a paucity of sources. Regardless of the problems with sources, the question may...

Teaching Resource

Puritans believed that reading the Bible was important to achieving salvation and, therefore, teaching children to read was a priority in their colonial centers. The New England Primer, first published in Boston in 1690 and used by students through the nineteenth century, was seen as a means to advance literacy. With more than five million copies of the Primer sold, generations of children first learned their ABCs through this publication. The document image is an excerpt from the Primer...